Hypertext

Interactive communication

The hypertext is a non-sequential structure that allows creating, adding, linking and sharing information from various sources through associative links and social networks. Hypertext is text that contains links to other texts. The term was coined by Ted Nelson around 1965.

The most common form of hypertext in computing is that of hyperlinks or automatic cross references that go to other documents (lexies). If the user selects a hyperlink, the program displays the linked document. Another form of hypertext is stretchtext which consists of two indicators or accelerators and a screen. The first indicator allows the writing to move from top to bottom on the screen.

Hypertext is not limited to textual data, you can find drawings of the specified or specialized element, sound or video referring to the subject. The World Wide Web is the largest and most popular hypertext network. The program used to read hypertext documents on the web is called a browser, browser, viewer or client, and when the reader or user follows a link, it is said that they are browsing the web. Hypertext is one of the forms of hypermedia, focused on designing, writing and editing text in a medium.

Uses only text and displays information in a non-sequential format, encompasses many forms of reading, giving the possibility of choosing paths to achieve different results, data is stored in a network of nodes connected by links.

History

A device that serves as a database and interacts with users, allowed mechanization and connection of information in order to increase development at that time. All of this explanation appears in the article As We May Think, published in the July 1945 issue of The Atlantic magazine, in Boston.

Ted Nelson, in 1965, was the first to use the word hypertext, his proposal is Xanadu, a system that allows the same document to appear in multiple contexts without having to be duplicated.

The first hypertext system carried out was created by Andries van Dam and built at Brown University in 1967. It was called HES (Hypertext Editing System).

Douglas Engelbart in 1968 designed the NLS (on line system), origin of the Augment system, a medium based on an interface that allows direct manipulation with the use of the mouse device. Engelbart partners with Ted Nelson to develop a computer program in which the notions of hypermedia and hypertext can be implemented. Aspen Movie Map was the first hypermedia system, carried out by Lippman in 1978, in which a virtual map of the city of Aspen was created with which the user could move through the streets using a joystick. The concept of anchors came from Intermedia, at Brown University. Intermedia was a multi-user system that made it easy to retrieve information. It could only be used at Apple under Unix. Due to lack of funds he disappears. Guide was the first commercial hypertext system, developed by Unix and later ported to the Apple Macintosh platform. The real turning point for the hypertext concept occurred in 1987 with the introduction of HyperCard in Apple computers. In that same year, a conference was given at the University of North Carolina dedicated to hypertext research. In 1991 the project to bring hypermedia technology to the World Wide Web was carried out. Two years later, NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) created Mosaic, the graphic browser for the WWW.

The mental process as a hypertext

In history, attempts have been made to create printed novels or short stories that relate to the idea of the hypertext process as in The Garden of Forking Paths, however, this process was never achieved as that it was impossible to leave the same medium where the novel or the writing was being considered.

Man is capable of relating concepts in the same way that it is achieved in a hypertext, it does not necessarily do so in a linear way, therefore, we can say that human thought as such is achieved in a hypertextual way.

The complicated thing lies in capturing this hypertextuality in a linear format such as a book, since this format does not allow you to play with the spatiality of the information, the mind is like this great hypertext in which the information is found in various nodes and through related searches and links you reach the information you are looking for.

Examples of hypertext novels:

Hopscotch, Khazarian Dictionary, Kenney Adam, The museum, Moulthrop, Victory Garden.

Utilities

In practice, hypertext is mainly used with:

1. Reference materials (general or specific) in which the user only wants to obtain the information he seeks. An example can be any online manual.
2. Fragmented material in short and autonomous sections that provide the specific and concise information the user seeks. If your interest is greater, you can access additional information in other links through links in the main text.

Even so, it is the author who must identify the interests of the readers and orient the text towards them, so that the utilities can be left open. In order to create the hypertext structure, it is necessary to take into account the potential users to whom it is directed, the context of use and the topic or matter it deals with. The hypertext design configures the good or bad usability of the website. Although the information contained and the structure are complex, it must be shown to the user as something simple and orderly. The hypertext configures a new way of writing and understanding the text. Readers scan the screen without reading everything on it, looking for elements that stand out and grab attention. In turn, whoever writes must keep in mind questions such as the way in which the user will interact with the text and with the hypertext structure, how they will navigate through it or how they will assimilate the information. The hypertext makes it easy to read and offers the opportunity to create your own route. The experience with hypertext gives the user a better strategic management of it and makes him more critical of Internet content. In educational environments, hypertext helps to develop activities such as associating, relating, fragmenting or outlining.

Hypertext Models

A model is a general and theoretical framework that formalizes all the characteristics and functions, essential and desirable, that can be included in any application of this type. Obviously the model will be more complete, to the extent that it has and expresses more characteristics. According to Tompa (1989), a model in the context of hypermedia systems has to represent both the static structure and the dynamic functioning of its components. Aspects related to the exchange of information between the system and the users should be added to the model, these being the author and the hypermedia reader, in order to describe those interface elements that facilitate the observation of the document on a computer. Hypertext systems are based on a basic model that is still used and assumed by a variety of researchers. The basic model is divided into: data submodel and process submodel.

Data submodel:

• The nodes are interlinked by directed links, to form the structure of a digit. All operations for insertion, removal and updating of nodes and links are provided with graph operations. They function as unstructured data collections which are grouped in such a way as to create a logical entity. This entity exists to provide consistent abstractions of information within the information space represented in the hypermedial structure.
• The links implement the direction of the connections between nodes, are associated as anchors to a source node and provide the user with the ability to activate them to move to a destination node. There are those who distinguish two types of link, the references that work as cross-references between documents, and the organizational ones, which are used to establish explicit structures by connecting a parent node to their nodes children, forming trees or other hierarchies. This data submodel, based on graphs, was used to define HAM -Hypertext Abstract Machine- [Campbell et al, 1988], in search of a mechanism to define the logical design of a hyperdocument.

Process submodel:

The mechanisms of access to the information represented in the hyperdocument require the description of the dynamics, that is, the navigations that constitutes the first means that the user has to access the contents and the other processes that intervene in the interaction with the user. It must contain, together with the proper exploration process via links, other processes that can influence the way users inspect the structure of hyperdocuments, allowing the user to obtain information of different needs studied to characterize this paradigm.

A wide range of hypertext descriptions can be found in the literature, most of which use graph derivations and extensions as data submodels, models expressed in formal language, and models based on the object-oriented paradigm. The most used are:

• Model based on hypergraphs.
• Graph-based model for NEPTUNE development.
• Petri Networking Model.
• Model based on "Anniversary Contexts" and Higraph-based.
• Model expressed in formal language, whose implementation is the Dexter system and its derivative Amsterdam.
• Object-oriented model.